TNA Staff
The New Arab / March 22, 2025
Israel claims to have intercepted the rockets while some reports say they landed in Metula, as the Israeli army conducted airstrikes across South Lebanon
Rockets were fired from southern Lebanon towards northern Israel on Saturday for the first time since December, as Israel responded with airstrikes and the Hezbollah militant group denied any role in the incident.
The missiles were reportedly launched from the southern Lebanese towns of Arnoun and Yohmor al-Shqif, located about six kilometres from the Israeli border.
While the Israeli army claimed to have intercepted the rockets, reports and footage shared online suggested that explosions occurred inside Metula, an Israeli town near the Lebanon border. The New Arab could not independently verify these videos.
According to Israeli media, three of the rockets landed in Metula while the remaining three fell inside Lebanese territory. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The Lebanese army later said in a statement that it had found three makeshift rocket launchers in an area between the towns of Kfar Tebnit and Arnoun in the southern Nabatiyeh district.
The army shared images on its account on X showing what appear to be small launchers made of wood.
“Military units continue to take the necessary measures to control the situation in the south,” the army said in its statement.
Israel’s army responded by shelling Arnoun and Yohmor and conducting airstrikes, claiming it bombed Hezbollah targets. “We attacked dozens of rocket launchers and a command centre that had Hezbollah members inside in south Lebanon,” it said.
Defence Minister Israel Katz had said earlier the Lebanese government is fully responsible for the launching of rockets from its territory.
Lebanon’s health ministry said two people were killed and eight were injured in an Israeli airstrike on the village of Toulin.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned Saturday’s incident, saying it represented an assault on Lebanon and aimed to jeopardise efforts to rescue the country, warning against any attempts to once again drag Lebanon into war.
He called on Lebanon’s newly appointed army chief, Gen. Rudolph Haykal, to investigate the missile launch and take necessary measures to protect civilians. He also urged the ceasefire monitoring committee led by the US to take action to bring the situation under control.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam rushed to calm the situation and called for restraint, saying the government has the sole right to make decisions on declaring war.
He warned against dragging the country into another conflict, as Lebanon continues to reel from last year’s Israeli offensive which killed over a thousand civilians and left billions of dollars’ worth of destruction in several regions.
Hezbollah denied any involvement in firing the rockets, asserting that “the Israeli enemy’s allegations are merely pretexts for its continued attacks on Lebanon, which have not stopped since the ceasefire was announced”.
In a statement, the group reiterated its commitment to the ceasefire agreement and its support for the Lebanese state in addressing this “dangerous Zionist escalation against Lebanon”.
No other group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it comes after repeated Israeli violations of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement. It has reignited fears of the fragile ceasefire breaking down and Israel resuming its offensive on Lebanon.
‘A thing of the past’
Israel has continued to conduct airstrikes across south Lebanon and in the country’s east, close to the Syrian border, claiming to be targeting Hezbollah weapon shipments, militant infrastructure and personnel.
It has vowed to stop the Iran-backed militant group from rebuilding itself.
Hezbollah has only targeted Israel once since the ceasefire, when in December it fired two mortars at Israeli troops in the disputed border area of Kfarshuba.
Once considered militarily powerful and a dominating force in Lebanese politics, Hezbollah was pummelled in the war last year, having lost much of its senior command structure and thousands of its fighters.
Israel claims to have destroyed most of its arsenal, and the group’s main weapons supply routes from Iran via Syria have been cut off after the collapse of the Assad regime.
Hezbollah also remains under heavy financial scrutiny, with tighter border security in Lebanon and US sanctions drying up its money sources.
The Lebanese prime minister on Friday told a pan-Arab broadcaster that Lebanon had “turned the page” on Hezbollah’s weapons and that the Lebanese state was responsible for liberating occupied territories.
For the first time in over two decades, the Lebanese government last month scrapped the term “armed resistance” from its ministerial statement, marking a significant shift in rhetoric and reiterating that only the Lebanese military had the right to defend national sovereignty.
Salam’s government and Aoun have vowed to fully implement the ceasefire deal in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which includes a state monopoly on all arms.
‘Israel will stay’
Under the ceasefire agreement, Hezbollah fighters are obliged to pull out of southern Lebanon and completely disarm, handing what remains of its arsenal over to the Lebanese army, which in turn must deploy heavily across the border region alongside UN peacekeepers (UNIFIL) to maintain calm and security.
Israel must also completely withdraw from Lebanon’s south, but despite this has kept troops in five strategic border locations.
On Friday, Israel said it would remain in these positions until the Lebanese army was in full control of the south.
The Lebanese government has called on mediators the US and France to pressure Israel into ending its occupation of Lebanese territory, and the UN says Israel’s continued presence in these areas violated the ceasefire deal.
Those calls were reiterated on Saturday by Aoun and Salam.
Washington is pushing Beirut to engage in talks with Tel Aviv to solve a number of disputes, including fully demarcating the land border and ending Israel’s military presence in south Lebanon.
However, there are concerns that the pressure being exerted by Donald Trump’s administration on the Lebanese government could be the start of normalisation efforts with Israel.
